Without gladdening the mind when it needs to be gladdened, realization will not be possible. — Bhikkhu Analayo

These have been challenging years for many of us, from which we’re just beginning to recover. Might some joy, as well as peace and tranquility, be welcome right now?

In the West, we often focus on the dukkha aspect of the Buddha’s teaching. We notice all the ways that our difficulties accepting reality create suffering. But we often neglect the experience of sukka—joy or happiness. Without joy, well-being eludes us and our practices—both clinical and meditative—can bog down.

Too often joy is underappreciated, or seen as frivolous, rather than prioritized as a vital quality that can be cultivated. But it’s joy that enables our meditation and clinical practices to grow, deepen, and blossom.

Joy has long been recognized as an essential ingredient in spiritual awakening as well as psychological healing. Featured in two traditional guidelines in Buddhist Psychology, the Bojjhanga or Awakening Factors and the Brahmaviharas, joy gives the uplift necessary to skillfully work with the hindrances that we inevitably encounter.

So how can we cultivate, and sustain joy in our meditative and clinical practices?

This intensive residential course will offer methods to not only soother and heal the nervous systems, but to cultivate this vital resource of joy.

We will study varied meditative postures, breathing practices, exploratory exercises, and both stillness and movement techniques designed to investigate trauma-related emotions and associated difficult experiences, as well as to cultivate sukka, or joy, as a psychological resource for ourselves and our clients.

The teaching will be experience-near, focusing on the development of tailored mindfulness and compassion practices and their application in our clinical and human service work with others. There will be daily mindfulness meditation instructions and three to four hours of structured practice each day, plus clinical study modules most afternoons in combination with dyadic or small group discussion and ample opportunities to explore clinical and personal practice questions.

The rest of the time we will observe silence, including during meals, to facilitate a deeper contemplative experience. Throughout the course, we’ll explore how to use meditative practices to be more present and responsive in our clinical work, as well as how to share them with our clients to help them work creatively with distress while living richer, more joyous lives.

Let’s gather together and support one another as a community of spiritual friends!

20 CEs will be offered for psychologists, social workers and mental health counselors. (Social Workers: We have applied for consideration of 20 clinical CEs through ASWB ACE.)

CONTINUING EDUCATION

Target Audience: Psychologists, Social Workers, Nurses, Licensed Mental Health Counselors, and other mental health professionals.

• Psychologists: The Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The Institute of Meditation and Psychotherapy maintains responsibility for the program and its content. This course offers 20 hours of credit.
• Social Workers: Cultivating Joy: An Intensive Retreat for Mental Health Professionals, Course #5053, is approved by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program to be offered by Institute for Mediation and Psychotherapy as an individual course. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE course approval period: 06/29/2023 – 06/29/2025. Social workers completing this course receive 20 clinical continuing education credits.
• Nurses:  This program carries 20 Contact Hours and meets the specifications of the MASSACHUSETTS BOARD OF REGISTRATION OF NURSING (244 CMR).
• Licensed Mental Health Counselors: The Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy is recognized by the National Board for Certified Counselors to sponsor continuing education for National Certified Counselors. We adhere to NBCC Continuing Education Guidelines. This course is approved for 20 contact hours, Provider #6048 and is applicable for Commonwealth of Massachusetts Counseling/Allied Mental Health and PDP accreditation.

Content Level: Intermediate to Advanced level training.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of the program, participants will be able to:

1. Describe the three core components of mindfulness practice.
2. Identify the evolutionary roots and mechanisms of compassion toward self and others.
3. Specify how positive emotions, such as joy, can be cultivated.
4. Describe the use of joy as a resource to work with painful emotions.
5. Demonstrate an experiential understanding of mindfulness and compassion interventions through personal practice.
6. Specify how a therapist can best choose which mindfulness exercises are most appropriate for different arousal states.
7. Describe how to use mindful movement to release anxiety-related tension and cultivate joy through the body.
8. Identify how mindfulness and compassion practices can enhance emotional regulation.
9. Discuss ways to assist clients to integrate mindfulness and compassion practices in their lives.
10. Describe the use of mindfulness and compassion practices to support parasympathetic activation and calm sympathetic activation.
11. Specify contraindications for various mindfulness and compassion practices.

Course Completion Requirements: To receive CE credits, it is necessary to attend all CE sessions and indicate attendance on sign-in sheets provided.

CE Certificates: will be provided in person at the completion of the course requirements on the last day of the program.

TIMED AGENDA

PLEASE NOTE: The program includes many hours of meditation instruction and practice that are not part of the formal didactic clinical education hours for which CEs are being requested.

Thursday 7/13

7:30- 9:30pm Course opening and overview. Elicit statements of interest and educational goals for participants to support group coherence and communication; outline course content and challenges inherent in learning mindfulness practices and applying them in clinical social work practice.

Methods: Didactic presentation, structured participant interaction, Q & A. 2 CE hours.

Friday 7/14

9:00 – 10:00am Introduction to Focused Attention. Instruction in focused attention practices that are used as foundation of mindfulness-based clinical social work interventions.

Methods: Verbal didactic instruction. 1 CE hour.

10:00 – 12:00 Personal mindfulness practice. Develop experiential understanding of effects of practices on cognitive and affective functioning.

2:00 – 5:00pm Clinical Applications I: Identifying clinical conditions and client populations for whom focused attention is most useful; choosing among various focused-attention practices for clinical social work interventions.

Methods: PowerPoint presentation, verbal didactic instruction, group discussion, Q & A. 3 CE hours.

7:00 – 9:00pm Personal mindfulness practice. Deepen experiential understanding of effects of practices on cognitive and affective functioning.

Saturday 7/15

9:00 – 10:00am Creating an Inner Holding Environment. Instruction in cultivating the attitude of acceptance toward inner cognitive and affective experience that forms the foundation of mindfulness-based clinical social work interventions.

Methods: Verbal didactic instruction. 1 CE hour.

10:00 – 12:00 Personal mindfulness practice. Develop experiential understanding of cultivation of an inner holding environment.

2:00 – 5:00pm Clinical applications II: Identifying clinical conditions and client populations for whom establishing an accepting attitude toward experience is most challenging; introduction of methods for the cultivation of joy as a resource; choosing among various acceptance practices for clinical social work interventions.

Methods: PowerPoint presentation, verbal didactic instruction, group discussion, Q & A. 3 CE hours.

7:00 – 9:00pm Personal mindfulness practice. Deepen experiential understanding of effects of practices on development of inner holding environment.

Sunday 7/16

9:00 – 10:00am Introduction to Open Monitoring. Instruction in open monitoring practices that are used to develop metacognitive awareness and affect tolerance in mindfulness-based clinical social work interventions.

Methods: Verbal didactic instruction. 1 CE hour.

10:00 – 12:00 Personal mindfulness practice. Develop experiential understanding of effects of practices on cognitive and affective functioning.

2:00 – 5:00pm Clinical Applications III: Identifying clinical conditions and client populations for whom open monitoring is most useful; choosing among various open monitoring practices for clinical social work interventions; exploring situations in which the cultivation of joy is contraindicated.

Methods: PowerPoint presentation, verbal didactic instruction, group discussion, Q & A. 3 CE hours.

7:00 – 9:00pm Personal mindfulness practice. Deepen experiential understanding of effects of practices on cognitive and affective functioning.

Monday 7/17

9:00 – 10:00am Mindfulness for Clinical Attunement and Empathy. Instruction in the use of mindfulness practices to cultivate an attuned, empathic therapeutic presence that has been shown to predict positive outcomes in psychotherapeutic interventions and foster resilience; the role of cultivating joy in clinical presence.

Methods: Verbal didactic instruction. 1 CE hour.

10:00 – 12:00 Interpersonal mindfulness practice. Develop experiential understanding of empathic attunement with interpersonal mindfulness practices.

2:00 – 5:00pm Clinical applications IV: Identifying clinical conditions and client populations with whom establishing empathic attunement is most challenging; choosing among various empathy and compassion practices for clinical social work interventions.

Methods: PowerPoint presentation, verbal didactic instruction, group discussion, Q & A. 3 CE hours.

7:00 – 9:00pm Personal mindfulness practice. Deepen experiential understanding of effects of practices on cognitive and affective functioning.

Tuesday 7/18

9:00 – 12:00 , 2:00 – 5:00 , 6:30-8:30  Mindfulness instruction and practice designed to understand the effects of concentrated, sustained mindfulness practice on cognitive and affective processes, integration of affectively charged memories, and development of metacognitive awareness.

Methods: Didactic presentation, guided experiential exercises.

Wednesday 7/19

9:00 – 11:00am Working with challenging affective and cognitive states. Instruction in the use of mindfulness and compassion practices to work with challenging mind states that arise in more intensive practice and in response to environmental instability.

Methods: Verbal didactic instruction. 2 CE hours.

11:00 – 12:00am, 2:00 – 5:00pm, 7:00 – 9:00pm Learning consolidation and integration. Review and integrate effects of retreat experience, plan how to apply insights from practice to personal and professional life.

Methods: Verbal didactic instruction, group discussion, Q & A.

Total CE Hours: Thursday 2; Friday – Tuesday 4 (4 x 4 = 16); Wednesday 2 = 20 Total

PLEASE NOTE: The program includes many hours of meditation instruction and practice that are not part of the formal didactic clinical education hours for which CEs are being requested.

COVID Safety Measures: Please review our current COVID Safety Measures, which are subject to change. We are creating this web page in January and retreats will not begin until late May. We very much understand how much things can change between now and the start of our retreat season.  Our Medical Committee is actively and regularly updating our protocols.